Dr McDonald published a new article in the Hispanic American Historical Review (Duke University Press). The article, “São Paulo Rising: Grassroots Movements and the Right to Health in Authoritarian Brazil,” examines grassroots constructions of a right to health during Brazil’s civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985). This article traces the rise of the Movimento de Saúde da Zona Leste, a grassroots health movement from the urban periphery of São Paulo composed largely of migrant, working-class women, through its development of an expansive, participatory conception of a right to health.
In doing so, “São Paulo Rising” demonstrates that health was a key area through which everyday people negotiated the contours of Brazil's emergent democracy during the transition from authoritarian rule. This article is based on Dr McDonald’s larger research project on grassroots movements and citizenship in São Paulo, Brazil.
You can view the article here.
Alongside oral histories with movement participants, this research draws on documents that Dr McDonald helped digitize as part of a collaborative digitization project with social movements in São Paulo. That archive can be consulted here.